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| Little Ricky the Raccoon, who started it all...
Last Fall, I met Little Ricky (above) one evening when he was exploring the balcony and my cat, Sophie, tried to chase him away. Well, by getting a handful of food for him, I coaxed him down from the top of the railing and he ate, eventually from my hand. He is an easy-going little fellow and we became fast friends. Above, he is playing with a camera strap. The lens cap was his favorite toy. However, he grew very fast and soon enough, did not want to play with the toys by the cat food bowl and instead, played with his outside toys, a small stuffed rabbit and bear.
Eventually, though, he did not come to visit daily and went off altogether. This was due to his house being taken up by another Raccoon. There is, in my building, a small hole at the top of the third floor landing, where birds would sometimes make nests. The little girl who displaced him is very shy, so I call her Shy Girl. Last week, she brought her four babies down to eat on my patio and then, out for lessons on how to catch fish in the pond nearby.
I do not have photos of them, as she is so shy and I did not want to scare her.
Today, something happened that required special action. The maintenance crew arrived to work on the landing roof (attic entry) at the very place where they live. I stepped outside to see what exactly the man were doing and found that they had hammered a board over the place where the Mom and her four babies were sleeping. There was no way for them to get out! So, I asked the men to remove it immediately. They did, but said they would be back tomorrow morning to put it back up.
Well, I was in a quandry about how to prevent the little family from getting trapped in their home on the morrow.
This evening, having set up two cat carries with food and water, I waited for them to come down. Instead, Little Ricky stopped by to say, Hello! :-) At midnight, he went off again not long afterwards, and the little family peeped over the edge of the attic roof, paws wagging and hanging over in places, here a face, there a tail. Then, Mom's face peeking out, mouth open, relaxed.
The largest baby came crawling first, head first. He handily switched to tail first. Then, the second to the largest baby came head first, barreling along, into the first one, pushing his way down, against his own will (e.g out of control driver). Then, baby number three came crawling down. He sort of landed on the head of baby two, who was sitting on the step in between, waiting on upside down baby number one to move towards the landing. Mommy came next, followed by the littlest one. They came down the stairs and upon seeing the carriers filled with food, sniffed, but went down the stairs, being scared to eat further. Failure. Plan One had failed. How was I going to keep them safe now?
Quickly, I grabbed the guinea pig's pen cover, which looks and behaves like a fence, when it is draped across a stairwell.
I put some food and water down on the ground level, in case they needed it. Then, wiring the sides of the homemade fence to the two side posts together with two coat hangers, the entrance to the stairs was effectively blocked, and blockaded with the help of a live trap from animal control (which I did not use). (However, it made good use as a blockade). &, Sophie is guarding, too, which helps.
After that, I sat down to keep guard. I am studying for an exam, so facing the chair outward, I can keep an eye on events outside. I said a prayer to the angels to help keep them away until the roof was sealed. .. I saw a grey and white shape going up the stairs and rushed outside, only to see nothing was there. I ran up to the upper landing leading to their home and saw Shy Girl downstairs eating the food I had left for them. I started to talk to her and she looked up at me, standing on her hind legs, curious.
Then, she wandered off, apparently wondering what was happening. I saw her biggest baby in the doorway of the rain gutter, where the animals go when they want to hide, get away without being noticed. I immediately went to the front door and ran around to the back to make sure they did not come up. No raccoons were there. The sides of landing were too steep for the little ones to climb and too slippery, being brick. So, Plan Two worked! :-)
Thank you, Angels!
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| Sophie the Cat |
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